Sad to say, I don't usually memorize an entire chapter, but I would think it would cause brain fry! I would like to eventually memorize Isaiah 53 as a witness tool to any Jewish brothers I might meet. I personally believe that Judaism and Christianity are the same religion save that the Jews don't accept Jesus as the messiah. I believe that Judaism (as taught in the Old Testament) is the foundation for Christianity and neither one makes sense without the other.
Sorry to go on a tangent.... Perhaps if you break up the chapter into sections of 3 or 4 verses it might relieve some of the burnout. Just a suggestion from someone who has never memorized a whole chapter (other than Psalm 23). As far as a whole book.... Wow! can't give any advice on that except that if I had to do it I would start with second or third John! I know it's no help but maybe you'll get a chuckle.

Humans are weird. I've often wondered why I go in big circles so often with so many things in my life, on various scales of time. hunger and sleep cycles can be measured in hours while seriously "needing" a vacation from a job or the daily grind can come about maybe once or a few times a year. You know, when people pack up the car and call in sick to make it a long weekend away from home.
I know there are lots of things that influence our "capacity" or desire to do what we basically want to do or know we should do or would be valuable for us, but I kind of think we all run on various cycles, like sleep cycles, for things that are more than physical. We can do something fine for quite a while (memorizing faithfully for several weeks or months or staying awake for several hours) then I think we can naturally need a break from it. We naturally need a period of sleep within every 24 hours. Maybe our brains need "sleep" from certain activities sometimes to be rejuvinated. Who knows? God created us. Being really tired means it's time to sleep and "being stong" and not sleeping isn't exactly going to make the need go away. Brain burnout can mean we need a break. Maybe there isn't a trick to make it go away. Maybe you just need a break. One of God's gift to us is rest and peace, and there is a time for everything.
Please let me know if this makes any sense to you or if ti helps.
God bless._________________-Meg
All for Christ!

Thank you for your encouraging response. I am actually taking a break. Since July 20, I haven't added any new verses and I have done very little review either.

Memorizing Scripture is one of my favorite things to do, but one day recently I just had to let go. Now I feel like something is missing, and I long to get back to it. I am praying that I will soon have the strength to resume where I left off.

I just prayed for you and will pray for you whenever I think of it, that God will help you always to do His will- whether it is memorizing or focusing on something else, or resting. God is good to us. He gives us all we need. God bless you!_________________-Meg
All for Christ!

Thanks a lot for praying for me. I picked it up again and by God's grace, I plan to reach the end of Romans next week. Praise the Lord! He is so good!

Of course, I still need to do some major review before I can easily quote the entire book from memory, but I am determined to conquer it!

If anyone has memorized an entire book of the Bible, let me know! Start a new topic and tell us about it. I would love to hear from you!_________________Lavern Gingerich
Pikeville, TN
lavern@pursuinglife.com

Lavern,
I know what you mean when you talk about brain burn out. You feel like there simply isn't any more room in your head and any attempt at memorizing any more is like writing in the waves.

I have been memorizing Romans for going on four years now and I am sad to say that of the two and a half chapters I've memorized, 90% of my progress was made over two years ago. Like you, I long to be revitalized in this effort and reawakened to it's joys.

When my brain would feel full, I would take a break for a few days and listen to the audio recordings I had made of the passages I had already memorized. This would give my mind a break and often the Lord would show me something new in my meditative review that would renew my excitement for more of His word.

I hope this is helpful, and I am excited to find people who are excited about God's Word!

I know what you mean about feeling like your brain is fried, and I am only on the second chapter of Romans! When I get frustrated or am just overwhelmed I have found it helpful to just quiet my heart and remind myself that this is a joyful journey into God's word, not a guilt-laden, legalistic, why-didn't-you-memorize-your-two-verses-today-you-scum ritual that I must do for God to be pleased with me.

This is my first post here - I am looking forward to becoming part of the community here. It's fascinating to me that I came up with the same pace as you, two verses a day, months before I ever saw this website. I wonder if that is just coincidence or if it is a common speed for Bible memorizers. I know that I don't think I could go much faster and retain what I memorize.

I have a great way to memorize, I call it prompterizing. You take the first initial of every word, and use them for memory prompts. This has kept me from having brain burn-out. I used to have that problem when I was memorizing without prompts. But now I can keep going for hours and still find it very enjoyable. I am giving away my Bible memory program on my website at http://www.wordkeeping.com

It is in the KJV but I am starting to do some in the NIV. If any of you are NIV fans and want to help, please let me know!

I started memorizing Romans in September 2007 and had four chapters memorized by December 2007. Since I had slacked on my technique, I had to rememorized chapter four, but got even more lazy and skipped a couple months or so, but I keep trying to stay with it. I'm now half way through chapter five and theoredically I could learn a chapter a week, but as you can see that's not been the reality. It's now January of 2009 and I really want to get back at it.
I have tried the "prompterizing" as mentioned above. I found a site that will turn your passage into a "first letter" memory tool http://www.productivity501.com/how-to-memorize-verbatim-text/294/
I find that with this tool I can easily recite chapter five, but without it I cannot go any further than before I used the help.
What I have been doing is reading the entire book of Romans each day. In that way, when it comes to memorizing a few verses, it comes quickly. The thing is that I must review and stay at it for those verses to stick.
I also will recite chapters one through four, and now five whenever I'm by myself. This keeps the chapters fresh so I don't have to go back and rememorized them.
I see that there have been few posts on this site for some time and wonder if it is even active, but I really could use some encouragement.

I think the effectiveness of certain tools may vary from one person to the next. Most of all, keep your eyes on Jesus and what God wants to speak to you. You are not just memorizing words for the sake of getting it into your brain. Rather, always view it as a precious opportunity to fellowship with God and draw closer to Him.

If you can recite your chapters with first letter prompts that means you know it at least that well. Keep working at it and wearing "deeper grooves" into your brain. It will get better!

Don't be discouraged. Time spent laboring to memorize and meditate on God's words is worth the effort.

I'm excited to have found this forum and commit to really hiding Gods word in my heart through scripture memorization. I find, in the past, even today practicing, I just get frustrated repeating myself over and over. (I memorize using mental techniques and reciting aloud). Sometimes, I feel silly, as if what I'm reciting has no relevance, is not useful and will not be helpful, ever. That's my biggest frustration is just overcoming the overwhelming sense that in that moment I feel like its pointless. Hope I'm not changing the topic, I just think that's how I experience the burnout.
In addition how do you review those countless chapters? It seems so tedious to review chapters at a time (reciting them outline) because it seems to take large blocks of time, or am I doing it wrong? This may be answered elsewhere, I'm new and learning the site. Thanks for all the encouragement!_________________VitaraGirl